Pierre Bismuth

“From the beginning of the movie [name of classic Hollywood movie] to the moment the image was taken, Pierre Bismuth has carefully followed and retranscribed the right hand movements of [name of iconic movie star], thereby creating a drawing overlaying the original image. Apparently random, this tangle of lines is in fact extremely meaningful and personal, since it captures the gesture of an iconic actress, whose myth the artist approaches subtlty. Bringing together several artistic approaches of the 20th century, from early photographic experiences of decomposing movement to Pablo Picasso’s drawings with a flashlight in space and in the dark, from automatic writing to action painting, Bismuth poetically reconciles fixed images and movement.”

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In Collages for Men, Bismuth has re-clothed pictures of naked women from pornographic magazines. By cutting white paper in the shape of clothes to fit over their bodies, the transformation is so misleading that it is hard to imagine these women were once naked. It is as if Bismuth misunderstands the purpose of pornography, suppressing any sense of lust that these pictures may have originally communicated. His intervention takes portraits of girls and transforms them into ‘suitably clothed’ women, yet despite Bismuth’s ‘censorship’, the use of soft focus and ‘erotic’ poses continue to associate these pictures with ‘glamour photography’.

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The paper-folding (origami) can be made of different materials – magazines, journals, posters, plans etc. A ready-made origami is unfolded and doesn’t reveal any trace of its creation; every object keeps nevertheless name of the thing that the corresponding origami is supposed to represent.